1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of providing a mobile IPTV service, and more specifically, to a method of providing a mobile IPTV service that determines a channel group of a requested channel and provides a multicast stream that includes a channel stream of the channel and a channel stream of the determined channel group to a mobile terminal, and a system using the same.
2. Related Art
Due to development of broadband wireless network technology, seamless high-speed wireless communication services are available in a mobile environment anytime and anyplace. Specifically, users' needs for high-quality multimedia streaming services such as an IPTV service in wired and wireless network environments have been increasing in recent years.
Since an existing IPTV uses a method in which a variety of pieces of IP-based content are transmitted to the user via an IP network, a wireless environment is necessary for the user to extend the existing IPTV to a mobile IPTV. Wireless technology is not limited to particular technology, but an early stage of mobile IPTV technology that provides an IPTV service using broadband wireless access technology, a WiMAX network, has been under development in recent years.
Due to recent development of video coding schemes and spread of broadband networks, there is now great interest and demand among users for a variety of multimedia services via the Internet. In particular, IPTV service is a main application in the IT market, and as wireless devices and wireless networks grow, it is expected to be extended to mobile IPTV service in the near future. As a representative wireless network capable of providing mobile IPTV service, the WiMAX network, which can provide a high data transmission rate, service-specific quality of service (QoS), and multicast and broadcast service (MBS), has entered the spotlight.
The WiMAX network provides a high data rate in the wireless network but has lower performance than the wired network. Moreover, it is expected that more bandwidth will be required for a base station (BS) to support a variety of multimedia services over the wireless network. Accordingly, a mobile IPTV system needs to be designed to efficiently manage channel stream resources over the WiMAX network.
Furthermore, in a mobile IPTV multicast system, a relatively longer channel change delay than in an existing broadcasting service is a big challenge for the IPTV service extension and needs to be addressed.